Language Arts at Washington

Washington Middle School’s Language Arts program is designed to develop students as independent readers and writers. Our instruction is aligned with the Common Core State Standards and Seattle Public Schools’ adopted middle school English Language Arts curriculum, Inquiry By Design. Across grades 6–8, students engage in challenging narrative and informational texts to learn and adopt writing and reading skills 

Our Language Arts teachers share a commitment to rigorous, inclusive instruction that is guided by the principals of a “warm demander”. The goal of our department is to challenge students while maintaining a welcoming, safe environment for all students. 

Scope and Sequence of Grades 

6th Grade Language Arts 

Sixth graders are introduced and work toward core skills of formulating an interpretive claim, establishing small-group discussion norms, narrative writing craft, contextual language and rhetoric development, tracking thematic development, and structural analysis. These developments will support the instructional sequence outcome of: 

• Close reading of complex informational and literary texts. 
• Writing in a range of genres including narrative, expository, and text-based explanations and arguments.
• Reading and writing across multiple complex texts. 
• Small- and whole-group, text-based discussions.

7th Grade Language Arts 

Seventh graders continue the work of writing for fluency, writing claims, citing text evidence, and using reasons to explain their thinking. In class we will focus on narrative, explanatory, and argumentative writing. Students begin their interpretive work this year reading “Thank You M’am” by Langston Hughes and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. The units of study include:

• Exploring the Reading and Writing Life
• Introduction to Interpretive Work (Hughes and Jackson)
• Addicted to Screens: Analyzing a Debate
• Dealing With Difficulty (Cummings and Dillard) 
• Investigative Report Writing: Explanations and Arguments
• Growing Up: Thinking With Literature
• Creating Characters in Poetry: A Study of Two Poets

8th Grade Language Arts 

Eighth grade prepares students for the independence expected in high school courses. Students begin the year examining the habits of effective readers and writers and builds on those skills throughout the year by focusing on narrative, argumentative, and informational writing. The major units of study include: 

• The Habits of Lifelong Readers and Writers
• Introduction to Interpretive Work
• Superstitions, Patterns, and Control
• Dealing with Difficulty
• Metaphorically Speaking
• Faces of the Essay
• Poems as Puzzles. 

Differentiated Instruction in Language Arts 

The ELA department’s approach to differentiating instruction begins with the belief that rigorous instruction benefits every student. Students do not need to be identified as Highly Capable to be asked to think deeply, analyze challenging texts, develop original interpretations, or engage in sophisticated academic discussion. Teachers establish high expectations for everyone while adjusting lessons, texts, groupings, questioning, writing expectations, and opportunities for extension based on student need. 

Our Language Arts teachers collaborate around curriculum, instruction, assessment, and student data. The department uses the shared Inquiry by Design curriculum as a foundation while making instructional decisions based on the students in front of them.